1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of eyelash curling devices and more particularly to a system comprising an eyelash curling device and a remote heating apparatus for transferring heat to an appropriate location within the eyelash curling device.
2. The Relevant Technology
Women have long been using eyelash curlers to make their eyes look more attractive. Various eyelash curlers have been employed to achieve the curling of eyelashes, such as those disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 3,640,290, 4,305,412, 4,784,165, 4,791,944 and 4,993,439. As seen in the representative prior patents, most eyelash curlers employ a pair of tongs which are moveable toward and away from each other. An upper tong is typically made of metal or plastic while a lower tong, also made of metal or plastic, is often covered with a softer, more flexible material, such as rubber. A pair of levers are typically used to operate the tongs to bring them together tightly during the curling operation. The hard upper tong squeezes the eyelashes against the lower rubber tong. By the application of pressure for a considerable period of time, the eyelashes are caused to curl and remain curled for a few hours.
This general method and device for curling eyelashes suffers a number of disadvantages: 1) the curling often takes a considerable amount of time; 2) the eyelashes do not remain curled for an acceptably long duration; and 3) the significant pressure often employed to speed up the rate of curling can cause eyelashes to break or fracture.
In general, it is well known in the art of hair designing that heat can speed up the process of curling hair. It also makes the curling job easier and usually results in a longer-lasting curl. With the knowledge that heating hair in general can aid in the curling or styling process, some have attempted to overcome many of the above-mentioned problems by creating a unitary device capable of heating itself to effect curling of the eyelashes. Examples of such devices may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,525,347, 3,838,699, 4,212,311 and 4,719,931. Some have even attempted to use curling rollers adapted to curl the eyelashes, much like rollers used to curl hair: e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,432, wherein a chemical solution to permanently set the eyelashes in a curled state is used with the curler.
Although there are several heated eyelash curlers known in the prior art, they employ a self-contained heating element supplied with power from batteries, electrical cord or other means in order to internally heat the device. Because of this, each of the self-heated curling devices have required significant modification of the existing eyelash curlers, which in turn renders them both more complicated and more costly to manufacture. In addition, in order to provide heating means, the resulting self-heated eyelash curling devices are generally very bulky and complex in operation. Because curling eyelashes is a somewhat technical procedure with comfort and ease of use being very important for the user, particularly because of its close proximity to the eyes, creating a very bulky and hard to use heated curling device has not adequately solved the problem of providing heated curling means. The inability to hold a self-heated eyelash curling device steady can result in burning the adjacent tissue and even the eyes. Likewise, harsh chemical perming solutions should not be brought into close proximity to the eyes.
More recently, professional hair stylists have been known to use a blow dryer or heat lamp in order to heat conventional eyelash curling devices in order to obtain the benefits of heating the lashes and thereby achieve a more sustained curl. While this has provided a simple stop-gap measure, the down side of this procedure is that blow dryers and heat lamps do not constitute appropriate heat-transfer media in light of the indiscriminate nature of the way in which they heat. In particular, blow dryers and heat lamps are unable to confine the heat to, e.g., the flexible compression strip of the eyelash curling device. As a result, the entire eyelash curling device is typically heated, which is known to result in discomfort or even burning of the person whose eyelashes are being curled. In spite of the down side of manually heating eyelash curling devices with a blow dryer or heat lamp, the fact that this method is widely used underscores the fact that the above-referenced patents do not teach eyelash curling mechanisms that have proven adequate for common, everyday use.
In light of the foregoing, it would be a significant improvement in the art to provide apparatus for heating an eyelash curling device in a manner that is simple and safe to operate.
It would yet be an advancement in the art to provide apparatus for heating an eyelash curling device that provides the proper amount of heating of the curling device while ensuring that the heat is localized to the structure that actually curls the eyelashes.
In addition, it would be an improvement in the art to provide an apparatus for heating an eyelash curling device such that the temperature can be controlled and the danger of burning the eyelashes or surrounding tissue eliminated or greatly reduced while maintaining a sufficiently hot curling mechanism to provide ease in curling and a longer curl.
Furthermore, it would be a further improvement in the art to provide means for heating an eyelash curler which would be inexpensive to manufacture and which could be used in conjunction with eyelash curlers presently used or curlers similar to those used in the market so that a user of such device could maintain the familiarity of the device while also obtaining the benefits of a heated curling process.
Such methods and apparatus for heating eyelash curling devices are disclosed and claimed herein.